Solutions Offered

If pain is interfering with your wellbeing on a day-to-day basis, you’ll most likely benefit from having a range of health professionals supporting you —and helping you to help yourself. At Frankston Pain Management, pain experts can work together to provide you with the right combination of tailored exercise, psychological therapy, practical advice and medication to reduce your disability, enhance your mood, improve your fitness and start living better.

Patient Assessment for Pain
Comprehensive Assessment

Before your first consultation

  • Please give us your doctor’s referral.
  • Please give us a summary from your GP if the referring doctor is not your normal doctor.
  • Please complete our FPM New Patient Questionnaire. You can download this from our website or you can call the clinic and ask us to post or email the form.
  • Please return these forms to the clinic as soon as possible.
Pre-consultation assessment /clinic
  • We may ask you to attend a pre-consultation assessment.
Initial consultation with a pain medicine physician
  • A pain medicine physician will perform a comprehensive assessment on each patient. This may need more than one consultation for us to fully understand your problem.
  • From your consultation and assessment, a pain management plan will be formulated which may include a combination of our treatment options.

Medication to Treat Pain
Medications

Dangers of Polypharmacy    Play (9:54) 
Topical anti-inflammatories    Play 
Opioid (strong) analgesics    Play (11:36)
Understanding Pain: Brainman stops his Opioids    Play (1:46)
Faculty Pain Medicine position on Medicinal Cannabis    Read more

Diagnostic (Test) Procedures for Pain
Diagnostic (Test) Procedures

We often use nerve blocks to diagnose the cause of pain and to provide pain relief. They’re helpful where pain is coming from a single nerve or a small group of nerves. A nerve block involves injecting the nerves supplying the painful area with local anaesthetic to stop the pain signals being transmitted. A nerve block can help to confirm the source of your pain. Usually it will also provide immediate, short-term relief. A nerve block can also be used to predict whether another longer-lasting treatment, such as neurotomy, is likely to help.

Atlanto-Axial Joint Injection
Coeliac, Splanchnic, Hypogastric and Ganglion Impar Blocks    Read more         Play (1:48)
Discography    Read more
Facet, Costotransverse and Costovertebral Joint Injections
Hip Joint Injections    Play (1:49)
Ilio-Inguinal Nerve Block     Play (1:16)
Intercostal Nerve Block    Read more  
Lumbar Sympathetic Block     Read more         Play (1:59)
Medial Branch (Dorsal Rami) Blocks     Read more         Play (1:59)
Medication Absorption (Kinetic) Tests     Read more
Nerve Block Injections      Read more (PDF) 
Pump Debug and Myelogram     Read more
Occipital Nerve Injection     Read more
Rami Communicante Blocks
Sacroiliac Joint Steroid Injections     Read more         Play (1:09)
Selective Nerve Root Injections     Read more         Play (1:37)
Stellate and T2 Ganglion Blocks     Read more         Play (2:22)
Suprascapular Nerve Block     Read more         Play (1:41)
Sphenopalatine Ganglion Block    Read more
Trigger Point Injections     Read more

Treatment Procedures for Pain
Treatment Procedures

Local anaesthetic injections with or without steroid can relieve pain and stiffness, giving you the opportunity to undertake a graded exercise program and get you back on track. People with headache, neck, shoulder, arm, back, leg, knee pain may benefit.

Radiofrequency treatments provide medium duration pain relief. They can help some people with headache, back, neck, shoulder, hip and knee pains.

PENS (peripheral electrical nerve stimulation) is a new day procedure that can be both a test and treatment procedure. It is helping people with back, knee, ankle and other localised pains.

Spinal cord stimulators, peripheral nerve stimulators and spinal drug pumps can provide sustained pain relief and functional improvement in complex pain conditions and a second chance at life.

We can cover most parts of the body with one of these treatments.

Autologous Blood Injections   Read more
Caudal Epidural Steroid Injection    Read more
Hyaluronic Acid Injection
Lumbar Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection     Read more         Play (1:52)
Cervical Facet Radiofrequency Neurotomy     Read more        Play (1:52)
Epidural Adhesiolysis / Neuroplasty     Read more         Play (1:42)
Epidural Steroid Injection     Read more        Play (1:34)
Epidural Blood Patch     Read more
Genicular Nerve Radiofrequency Neurotomy
Lumbar Facet Radiofrequency Neurotomy     Read more         Play (1:48)
Nucleoplasty (Percutaneous Disc Decompression)     Read more         Play (1:50)
PENS (Peripheral Electrical Nerve Stimulation)     Read more
Peripheral Nerve Stimulation     Read more
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Injections      Read more
Prolotherapy     Read more
Pulsed Radiofrequency Treatment     Read more
Occipital Nerve Stimulation     Read more
Scrambler Therapy     Read more
Spinal Cord Stimulation     Read more         Play (2:31)
Spinal (Intrathecal) Drug Pump     Read more         Play (1:55)
Transcutaneous Pulsed Radiofrequency Treatment    Read more
Vertebroplasty     Read more         Play (1:22)
Ultrasound Guided Injection for Shoulder Pain     Play (1:16)

Infusions for Pain
Infusions

Infusions are like injections except they’re given over a longer period of time. Depending on what kind of nerves are carrying the pain signals, an infusion of phentalomine may provide relief.

Diagnostic Analgesic Infusion   Read more
Ketamine Infusion   Read more
Lignocaine Infusion    Read more
Magnesium Infusion    Read more
Phentolamine Infusion    Read more

Scrambler Therapy Calmere Therapy Melbourne
Scrambler Therapy

What is Scrambler Therapy?
Scrambler Therapy, also called “Calmare” (Italian for “to soothe or ease”) is a drug -free and non-invasive treatment for nerves and cancer related pain.

Scrambler Therapy is a form of “neuromodulation” that changes the way the nerves for nervous system behave, to desensitise the central nervous system. The brain is responsible for interpreting different sensory messages from the body and may interpret the sensory message resulting from an injury as dangerous and so create a sensation of pain. However, with neuropathic pain or nerve pain, the brain can create pain even if there is no injury or external pain generators.

Scrambler Therapy sends a message of “no danger” along the nerves to the brains, which reduces or eradicates the sensation of pain. Essentially this therapy is helping to retrain and rewire nerve transmission and perception to pain.

This is an established and common therapy in several European countries, the United States, Korea, and Japan.

FPMX offers scrambler therapy for patients in Melbourne from their Frankston clinic rooms on the Mornington Peninsula.

What should I expect at a Scrambler Therapy Session?
Scrambler Therapy is delivered in an outpatient clinic and does not require sedation. Your treating Pain Specialist will provide clinical oversight and supervision of your treatment, which will be delivered by treatment staff.

The first block of treatment is done over 2 weeks, with a total 10 consecutive treatment sessions with a weekend break between week 1 and week 2. Each Scrambler Therapy session lasts for 40 minutes plus the time required to position electrodes and adjust the stimulation.

At the start of each treatment session, a person’s site of pain is identified, and electrodes are placed on the skin, on either side of the painful area(s). Once the electrodes have been placed in the correct position, the stimulation intensity is then adjusted according to each person’s comfort level.

Patient will then develop a sensation of tingling, which has been described as a “pleasant humming” or like champagne bubbles on your skin. After a treatment session is completed, most people feel soothed and report that the pain has markedly reduced or disappeared. In the subsequent treatments your pain may remerge with less intensity and the duration of pain relief increases.

Once the initial 10 sessions are completed, pain relief can last between 3-12 months before top up or booster treatment is required.

When do I need Booster Treatment?
Booster sessions are required when nerve pain returns and stays present for 24-48 hours.

If this happens, please contact us and we will book you for up to 5 sessions. These sessions last the same length of time as the initial sessions.

Who is most likely to benefit from Scrambler Therapy?
People who have neuropathic or nerve pain.

Examples of Nerve Pain:

  • Post chemotherapy induced painful peripheral neuropathy
  • Post operative associated nerve pain
  • Complex regional pain syndrome
Potential Benefits
As reported in the literature:
  • Pain reduction between 50-100%
  • Functional improvements including return to work
  • Reductions in use of Medication
  • Improved Sleep
Patients not suitable for Scrambler Therapy
  • Patients with implanted pacemakers, aneurysm clips, vena cava clips, skull plates and brain injury sufferers.
  • Patients who have had a recent myocardial infarction
  • Patients being treated for epilepsy
  • Pregnant and breastfeeding women
  • Patients with unstable or untreated mental illness.
Implanted spinal and peripheral stimulators will need to be turned off for several weeks before therapy. This will be discussed with individual patients.

Is Scrambler therapy covered by Medicare, Health funds or Workcover?
Currently Medicare and Private Health funds do not cover this therapy. Workcover, Motor Accident Insurers and Department of Veteran’s affairs will consider funding this treatment.

History of Scrambler Therapy
Prof. Giuseppe Marineo invented and developed the clinical practice of Scrambler Therapy in the early 2000s. He named the Therapy after the military device that scrambled or changed signals and information so that they were no longer recognisable.

Current Research
There is strong evidence of efficacy with 9 randomised placebo-controlled trials and a published literature of over 60 papers describing the use of Scrambler Therapy.

Visit the Clinical Trials page for Scrambler Therapy

Helping Yourself to Treat Pain
Helping Yourself

Whole Person Pain    Read more
Understanding Pain and Helping Yourself in 5 minutes    Play (05: 00)
Understanding Chronic Pain    Play (8:54)
Why Things Hurt    Play (14:32)
The Mystery of Chronic Pain    Play (8:30)
The Conversation    Go to link

What is self management?      Play (4:06)
Cancer Related Fatigue    Play (9:47)
Coping with Persistent Pain      Read more
Pain Toolkit Australia Booklet      Read more
Pain Toolkit (DVD snippet)    Play (2:00)
Pacing Brochure    Read more
90:10 The best thing you can do for your stress      Play (11:00)
Pain Self-help & Relaxation Exercises    Read more
Transcendental Meditation      Play (11:06)
Online Self Help Programs Brochure      Read more
eClinic Online Pain Course      Go to link 
Pain Management for Everyone      Go to link
painHealth      Go to link

Getting a Good Night's Sleep    Read more
Sleeping with Pain    Play (4:44)
Interrupted Sleep    Play (8:02)
Sleeping Well    Go to link
Dangers of snoring - from Tonic TV    Play (9:03)
Best Treatment for Insomnia    Play (2:07)

Fad Diets    Read more
The South Beach Diet    Read more
Low GI diet    Play (5:16)
Top 10 Obesity Causing Foods    Play (16:10)
Mediterranean diet transcript    Go to link
Energy Drinks    Play (14:09)
Dietary Supplements transcript    Go to link
Toxic Sugar    Play (18:01)
Comfort food    Play (3:10)

Understanding Ergonomics at Work    Read more
Workplace Stress transcript    Go to link
A Guide for Injured Workers Returning to Work    Read more
The Benefits of Returning to Work    Read more
Job in Jeopardy Assistance    Go to link
Workplace Conflict    Go to link
Reducing Stress at Work is a Walk in the Park    Go to link

The best thing you can do to quit smoking    Play (12:47)
Problem gambling and depression    Read more
Gambling transcript    Go to link
Understanding Pain:   Brainman Chooses    Play (2:29)
Drugs, alcohol and mental health    Go to link
Cannabis and psychosis    Read more
Substance use - stages of change model    Read more

Physical Activity to Reduce Pain
Physical Activity

10,000 Step Walking Program Brochure    Read more 
24 hour Fitness - 23 hours and 1/2 hour    Play (05:00)
Exercise is Medicine    Play (8:23)
Sitting is Deadly    Play (05: 00)
Tai Chi for Beginners    Play (4:56)
Daily Tai Chi – join in this 8-minute exercise    Play (9:05) 
Walking to Beat the Grim Reaper    Play (1:24)
Fat and Fit    Play (6:16)

Mental Health & Pain
Mental Health

Recovery    Go to link
Changing Your Thinking    Read more
10 Things That Help    Read more
Chronic physical illness, anxiety and depression    Read more
Serious injury and anxiety, depression and PTSD    Read more
Drugs, alcohol and mental health    Go to link
A Guide to what works for depression    Read more
Keeping Active    Go to link
Understanding anxiety    Read more
Anxiety disorders    Read more 
Reducing Stress    Read more 
Grief and Loss    Read more 
Guilt    Read more
Anger - how it affects people    Go to link
Managing your anger    Go to link
Bipolar Disorder    Read more 
Depression and anxiety disorders in women    Go to link
Depression in men    Go to link
Depression in older people    Go to link 
Bullying and cyberbullying    Read more 

If you’ve had enough of trying to fight pain on your own, let us help. For all appointments and enquiries contact us on:

    Mon to Fri

- 9:00am to 5:00pm

Telephone Contact hours

Mon to Fri

- 9:00am - 3:00pm